* Joe Pfeiffer <jjpfeifferjr at comcast.net> [070123 17:04]:
> Robert Michel writes:
> >
> >Since last Dezember it is forbidden for the driver to touch a PDA/mobil
Ok, I think that's a case of wrong translation. It's forbidden to
pickup the phone. you are quite allowed to touch the phone, explicitly:
D: Wenn das Handy im Fahrzeug fest installiert ist und zur Bedienung
D: nicht in die Hand genommen werden muss, es beispielsweise mittels
D: Sprachsteuerung oder Tastendruck bedient werden kann, ist eine
D: Benutzung während der Fahrt weiterhin gestattet.
E: If the mobile is installed in the car, and one doesn't need to take
E: into the hand to use it, e.g. voice control or button control, the
E: usage while driving is allowed.
Using headsets is also allowed, but only onesided, you need to be able
to follow the traffic noises.
bicycles need also the same equipment.
Headset and freespeaker need a special "e"-symbol certification. OTOH,
the "allgemeine Betriebserlaubnis" is not voided automatically despite
other reports from television.
As these rules, especially the EMV ones (about the "e"-symbol) are
derived from European legal guidelines, I'd expect that they'll apply
the same in the whole EU.
Interestingly, the complete article from ADAC does not mention
anything about external antennas being needed.
> As a matter of safety, it turns out that the major problem with using
> cell phones is the distraction, not having your hands unavailable to
> drive (even with a manual transmission). Car kits do very, very
> little to help.
Yep. And if you are quarreling with your passenger, it's probably at
least as unsafe as quarreling with the same person via phone ;)
> >While it has become allowed to use a mobil and GSM transmitter
> >during flying a plain I fear that the laws could be be missused
>> When has this become allowed?
Well, there a talks, and I think first trials, as I try to avoid
planes, I'm not that much interested in this topic.
Andreas